Reviews

ATV: Quad Power Racing 2

Keeping an eye out for ATVs falling on you from overhead is an issue as well. Some ATVs are prone to longer, higher jumps, whereas others are easier to handle on the ground. Either way, it's a good idea to perform tricks whenever possible, as each trick will add some juice to your boost meter. You can also steal another player's boost power by knocking them off of their ATV with a tap of the B button. Holding down the Y button will engage your boost, during which vapor-trail motion lines indicate that you are driving really, really fast. This too is deeply satisfying. Careful not to get knocked off of your quad or you'll lose all of your boost power!

Aside from the standard training, career, single race, arcade, time trial, and freestyle modes, there are also two types of special challenges to keep players occupied for an additional stretch: ground and tower challenges.

Brilliant lighting effects.

During the ground challenges, players race against the clock while performing specific tasks, such as avoiding traffic cones, or maintaining a wheelie from the starting point to the finish line. Passing these challenges will unlock "Superstar Riders," and will also hone some of the skills you need on the track. While you may never rely on a "stoppie" (which is essentially a frontal wheelie) during normal game play, it doesn't hurt to learn how to pull one off for an extended period of time. Overall, the ground challenges are nothing to write home about, but unlocking those extra riders will please fanatics.

The tower challenges, which are considerably more impressive, involve quickly driving through a series of oddly shaped vertigo-inducing courses suspended over water. As in the other console versions, these challenges would have served as a stronger selling point were there more than four of which to speak. Still, these challenges provide an additional means of practice for newcomers, and will also serve to please advanced players for an evening or two. Maintaining your balance on narrow tracks full of dips and curves is trickier than it may initially seem, and while some may find it too tricky, those with the patience and dexterity to beat the top time will be treated to a tasty adrenaline rush.

Riding through the forest lake at dusk.

The freestyle mode is limited to a single large arena with big jumps and large holographic hoops suspended in mid-air. This is where all of the flash photographers do their best to impress with a flurry of lighting effects, as alluded to earlier. It's also where the challenge involves performing enough combo tricks to achieve a score of 70,000 to 1,600,000 or higher -- no easy task. Jumping through the hoops helps. Hoops or no hoops, those familiar with the overall vastness of the environments in Sony's ATV: Offroad Fury series will feel cramped in such an enclosed space, another example of this game falling short of its overall potential.

In the end, despite the few extra features mentioned at the start of this review, unresponsive controls prevent the Xbox version of QPR2 from outdoing its console brethren. The lack of an online element serves to further accentuate the inferiority of this title in relation to Sony's ATV: Offroad Fury 2. Still, with so few quality 4x4 games on the market, QPR2 may be worth checking out.